I’m sad to announce that the three stores I tried had no 3.5 quart enameled cast iron pots from Le Creuset. I tried. I even stopped off at a the local special cooking store to see what they had in stock. They had a baby 2quart pot and a 2.5 quart pot (full reactive style cast iron). So I decided, “To hell with it, I’m just going to make the recipe using a pot I already have. So I did it! I had ingredients I had been collecting since Dec. 6th when I thought I would have to cook for my wife after her stay in the hospital. Boy am I glad I waited and waited. First, I found the ultimate recipe last weekend. Then, I waited until I found the ultimate chili pot. But in waiting I gave myself enough time to purchase the last ingredients (mostly dried and ground spices). And speaking of spices, I’ve never used more spices than in the America’s Test Kitchen chili recipe. A quarter cup of chili powder, a teaspoon of red pepper flakes and a half teaspoon of cayenne pepper, all make for the darkest, richest, most flavorful chili you have ever had. I’m leaving out the rest of the spices because I don’t want to be sued by anyone. But let me tell you it is a winner. I’ve just added another easy dish to my repertoire. I may still shell out the money for a Le Creuset dutch oven, but I’m going to be back at my birthday asking for the the very pot I didn’t buy last week.
Month: January 2007
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I’ll only end up frustrated
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America’s Test Kitchen Chili Recipe
The best pot for cooking chili – Le Creuset I want to thank the fellow who put the recipe out from the America’s Test Kitchen cookbook, Inside America’s Test Kitchen (Thanx to Clay Irving @ panix.com)
I was very curious when I found ATK had a recipe for Chili. I watch the PBS show they have under the name of America’s Test Kitchen. I have only tried one recipe in the past, a chocolate chip cookie recipe for a crispy, harder cookie. It wound up not working out for me. But I have great hopes for this Chili recipe. Now the next hard step was discovering that neither my wife nor I own a non-reactive cast iron Dutch Oven. That’s right we were completely passed by the Le Creuset revolution (Vive la revolution). I had seen this item in various forms on other cooking shows but the lesson never sank in. Lidia’s Kitchen for example used the Dutch Oven for her osso bucco. It makes total sense. But trying to find a store that carries the 3.5 quart Le Creuset French Oven is almost impossible. But we may have a specialty store near our house that will have it in stock.
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Finally, a minor contribution
One of my favorite passtimes is to listen to a podcast called the Dawn and Drew Show. And let me tell you when you join their message board you begin the understand the value of Listener Generated Content. Adam Curry has benefited from this too with his podcast Daily Source Code. I’ve sent a few emails at different times to Adam, one of which got a mention on his show. Sometimes, I fall so far behind in listening to the shows I don’t feel I can make a legitimate contribution. I’ve been doing a lot better recently keeping up with Dawn and Drew episodes so I threw together this little ditty in Photoshop:
Hopefully, the next step would be a good phone line comment about something happening recently in one of the episodes. But I don’t want to get ahead of myself. Little steps, little baby steps.
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Whatcha’ Gonna Do?!
There was a time I rode the bus in Junior High School where the older black kids brought a boombox onto the bus. I didn’t have a choice but to listen. However I got so used to it being there I didn’t know I would miss it. Work yo’ body, work yo’ body, work yo’ body. All the way! Pump, pump, pump, pump, pump, pump, pump pump iit up! Those were the days. I wonder what those band names were called. I never really found out what was on those old cassette tapes. I just remember it being loud and very rhythm heavy. -
Thinking about the weather
10,000 Maniacs: The color of the sky as near as I can tell is called grey
Thinks finally cooled off, below normal in fact for many quarters in the eastern U.S. The ice wasn’t too bad. We could have had power outages, but we seem to have escaped them. Tonight is the big chill however, the prediction is 10 degrees fahrenheit. I’m kind of glad the weather is acting somewhat more normally. And I hope it stays this way for the duration. Snow of any kind isn’t a burden if it melts occasionally.
Carpet Bomberz Inc. 